HYDROLOGY
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- STEFANO ALVISI
- Credits
- 9
- Curriculum
- AMBIENTALE
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- ICAR/02
Training objectives
- The main goal of the course consists in providing the basis to tackle the study of the common hydrologic analyses of deterministic, and stochastic nature.
The main acquired knowledge will be:
- techniques for estimating rainfall and discharges
- advanced techniques for modelling rainfall-runoff transformation and routing
- main characteristics and property of the hydrologic models
- automatic parameterization techniques
- elements of theory of probability
The basic acquired abilities (that are the capacity of applying the acquired knowledge) will be:
- application of the techniques for estimating rainfall and discharges to be used for designing hydraulic structures such as sewers and reclamation networks, dikes, ponding areas
- application of the rainfall-runoff modelling techniques to be used for flood forecasting
- application of the elements of theory of probability to be used for hydrological analysis
- use of the MATLAB language to implement the different procedures Prerequisites
- Basic information on hydraulic, statistics and theory of probability.
Course programme
- Introduction to hydrology. Hydrologic cycle. Description of the hydrologic processes at different spatial and temporal scales. The atmospheric forcing. (2.5 h)
Precipitation. Measurement and representation of precipitation fields. (2.5 h)
Intensity-duration frequency curves, synthetic hyetograph, Huff method, Chicago Hyetograph. (10 h)
Infiltration processes. Hydrologic response of land surface. Soil moisture status. Constitutive equations. Continuity equation. Generalized Darcy equation. Richards equation. (2.5 h)
Base flow separation and direct runoff in observed hydrographs. (2.5 h)
Models to calculate the net rainfall, Phi method, CN method, Philip and Horton approaches, Green-Ampt method, Stanford method. Method of the index fi. (7.5 h)
Linear rainfall-runoff models. Instantaneous unit hydrograph. Linear reservoir method. Nash method. Snyder, Clark, and Kinematic Unit Hydrograph. A full conceptual rainfall runoff model: ARNO. (10 h)
Parameterization techniques: manual and automatic. Genetic algorithms: population; crossover, elitism, stop criteria. (5 h)
Routing models: hydraulic models: kinematic and parabolic formulations - loop rating curve. Hydrologic models: Muskingum, Muskingum-Cunge. (5 h)
Stage and flow discharge measurements. (2.5 h)
Statistical analysis of the hydrologic events. Random variables. Basic elements of theory of probability. Probability distributions of Bernoulli, binomial, geometric, normal. Return period. Hydrologic risk. Extreme value theory:EV1, EV2, EV3, GEV. Parameters estimation. Design flood wave: reduction curves and relevant regionalisation techniques. (17.5 h)
For all the topics a numerical application is developed through the use of the computer. (22.5 h) Didactic methods
- The course is organized as follow:
• lectures on all the course’s topics;
• practice exercises concerning the simulation of rainfall-runoff processes and calibration of hydrological models. Students will take 9 guided tutorials of 2.5 hours each. Learning assessment procedures
- The exam is aimed at verifying the level achieved by the student for understanding and conducting the common hydrologic analyses of deterministic and stochastic nature. In order to do the exam the student must give a copy of the technical exercitations concerning hydrological models developed by the student in Matlab and HEC-HMS framework at least one week before the date of the exam. The exam consists of an oral examination featuring three demands covering the three major sections of the program, that is technical hydrology, statistical hydrology and technical exercitations. In fact, the first demand concerns a topic of technical hydrology selected among all the topics provided within the program. The second demand concerns a topic of statistical hydrology selected among all the topics provided within the program. Finally, the last demand concerns the technical exercitations developed by the student in Matlab and HEC-HMS framework. A sufficient level is required for each of the three major sections. The final evaluation is based on the average of the levels achieved within each section.
Reference texts
- Didactic material distributed by the lecturer
Ven Te Chow et al., Applied Hydrology, Ed. McGraw Hill, 1987.
Didactic material for practice exercises : internet site of the course
Specific topics can be further developed in the following texts:
Kottegoda N., T., Rosso R., Statistics, Probability, and Reliability for Civil and Enviromental Engineers, McGraw Hill, 1998.
Moisello U., Idrologia Tecnica, La Goliardica Pavese, 1999.
Maione U., Moisello U., Elementi di statistica per l'idrologia, La Goliardica Pavese, 1993.
